UFC 155 results: Derek Brunson gets past Chris Leben to win UFC debut

With both fighters battling empty gas tanks, Brunson’s wrestling won him two of three rounds on the scorecards.

The middleweight bout opened up the main card of Saturday’s UFC 155 event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

Brunson baited Leben with a few fast kicks and grabbed a bodylock to put the veteran on the mat. Leben scooted his legs for a submission and attempted to scramble away, but Brunson held fast.

A minute later, Brunson briefly let his opponent up, but returned to the mat moments later to threaten with an arm triangle and land elbows from top position. Leben scooted to the cage and managed to escape, but with less than a minute remaining in the first, he had little time to attack.

Leben, who returned to the octagon for the first time since serving a one-year suspension for banned substances, planted a punch on Brunson’s chin to open the second, and when Brunson inevitably shot for a takedown, he resisted. But the younger fighter redoubled his efforts, and soon, he was back in prime position.

This time around, Leben found the edge of the cage sooner and stood. It was a perfect time for him to do what he does best, which is let big bombs go. But instead, it was Brunson who was the more active fighter standing, and it looked very much like the yearlong layoff robbed Leben of his stamina.

But with two minutes remaining, Brunson also looked to have lost most of his steam, and after spending most of the latter half of the round on his bicycle, he immediately took a knee at its end.

Leben chased his tired foe down from the outset of the final round and resisted an initial takedown attempt. But he couldn’t stop a second one, and Brunson had plenty of time to work.

It was Leben, though, who did all of that. He fought his way back to standing and looked for big punches. Brunson covered up, though he landed a few one-two combinations.

But between Leben’s wild swings and Brunson’s bicycling, the audience wasn’t thrilled with what they saw.

Leben spent the fight’s final seconds chasing, and Brunson’s scream at the bell put a lackluster affair to bed. All three judges scored the fight 29-28 for Brunson.

“I knew the type of fight I was getting myself into when I agreed to the bout,” Brunson said. “Leben is an all-out slugger. I wanted to prove to myself that I could fight this guy and not just wrestle him for the victory. I wanted to go at it with him, but maintain my game plan and fight my fight. I started slowing down in the second round and I feel that’s just a matter of taking the fight and training for it on such short notice. Overall, I feel like I’m getting better, but I know I have a long way to go to compete in the UFC’s middleweight division.”

“Hat’s off to Derek,” Leben said. “He beat me the only way he could. I know what a Jackson’s MMA fighter’s game plan was going to be, and those guys have gotten very good at it. Those guys have gotten good at punching while backing up. I let him hit me a few times so that I could counterstrike with him and get him to trade with me, but he was able to just hold me down for the majority of the fight.”

Brunson (10-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) snapped a two-fight skid while Leben (22-9 MMA, 12-8 UFC) lost in his first fight back after his suspension.

The Latest

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?

Ronda Rousey’s statistical greatness has already ventured into uncharted territory – just six fights into her UFC career. Check out all the post-fight facts, including Rousey’s latest achievements, about UFC 190.